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I feel like these kids need to have a class before they start getting recruited. I think this is 3 years in a row a top recruit has done something dumb on social media. Our good friends yuri Wright and Treadwell for instance. BTW whatever happened to Brian eating a lemon if Yuri went to Colorado?

The linked article is weird. The amount of $$ in that tweeted photo looks pretty substantial--probably a few thousand dollars at least. If I am a journalist and some big-time football recruit tweets a photo like that, I am going to start looking at who's recruiting him and where he might have gotten the money. Instead, the writer is just like, "put your stash away, KD, before people get the wrong impression." Nothing to see here, I guess.

This seems like a non-story to me. He is a kid and kids do dumb things like post pics of themselves with a bunch of cash so they look cool (or whatever word the kids use these days to signify being cool). The kid hasn't been charged with anything, he is not a member of a school being investigated, and I didn't notice drugs or anything else damning in the photo. He dreams of being a big deal one day with lots of cash to throw around. If we start noting every time a kid who is good at high school football does something dumb online, when will we have time to worry about recruiting class size and bubble screens?

Usually when kids post pictures of themselves with a bunch of cash to look cool, it's some 20's and smaller denominations mixed in, amounting to a couple hundred bucks. This 17-18 year old just posted a picture with a stack of 100's amounting to a few thousand dollars. I think it's reasonable to wonder where he got it. Very fiew kids his age are in a position to take that picture absent some nefarious means of obtaining the money.

You could find an Audi in a parking lot or on the street (Lamborghini might be harder to come by) that you could take a picture with even if you don't own it. I assume this is what you're suggesting. Where does a high school kid find a stack of $100 bills?

I don't think any one is suggesting that this kid committed a crime. Just that when you are in a position to receive money that could put your eligibility into peril and possibly bring sanctions against a school, posting pictures of yourself online holding stacks of cash isn't a good idea, even if that money didn't come from a school/booster.

Additionally, it's one thing to take a picture of something sitting outside that is publicly accessible (such as a car) v. something that tends not to be laying around (such as a stack of cash). I don't think your example of taking a picture of yourself with someone else's car is really the same thing, because people don't leave stacks of $100 bills sitting around for other people to handle.

The kid didn't commit a crime and one picture like this isn't evidence of any NCAA violations. That said, I don't think it's crazy, though, to consider it a little eyebrow raising.

Dude $2000 is not a lot of money, even without a partime job. I had more than that when I was 16 from working odd jobs growing up and just saving here and there from birthday gifts and left over communion money and what not.

And that's how Dave Brandon came to be a millionaire. Odd jobs and prudent spending.

Mr. Brandon, I will say that $4000 is not a huge amount of money, but the odds are, Mr. Streets-are-real was recently given that money as a lump sum. I couldn't keep $60 in my pocket without buying a video game or a baggie of some sort when I was in my late teens. If he spent his summer slowly accumulating that money, he would have spend that summer slowly distributing it as well.

I've always known "baggie" to be used in reference to hobo prostitutes who frequent truck stops and dive bars. And son, I'd recommend staying away from baggies, especially in your teens when you can meet a nice girl at a mixer or dance.

Just for future reference, if you're spending $60 dollars for a baggie, you're paying too much.

You may have had $2,000 (thuogh your lack of perception of the true amount in the picture leads me to believe you've never seen that amount in a stack of 100's) but you either kept it in a bank account or had a "piggy bank" of different denominations with many bills folded or wrinkled.

It's perfectly reasonable that the kid just closed out his bank account and received a fresh stack of 100's. It's also perfectly reasonable that the money came from some other means.

Maybe. But I could have taken a picture of myself with a giant mound of powdered sugar on the table, Scarface style, and posted it all over the internet whilst applying for jobs. Totally legal, not breaking any rules, but also a really stupid idea.

This could be nothing at all. Maybe it isn't even him (or his money) in the pisture. On the other hand the possibility still exists that it IS him and his money, and that's the problem. Where would a 17 year old kid get that kind of money? There are a multitude of answers to that question, but on of them is that a university that would like to aquire his services gave it to him in exchange for his committment. That is a story whether you want to admit it or not.

If I was a school recruiting a kid I would be pretty pissed off if he pulled a stunt like this because it could definitly open the door to people taking a hard look at my school and sometimes people are presumed guilty until proven innocent in cases like this. It was clearly a very childish decision made by a 17 year old kid. That stuff happens, but it doesn't make it any less of a potential story.

Then comparing youself to said football recruit doesn't make a lot of sense. And if you are sitting on several thousand dollars at home on a regular basis you might want to speak to a better financial consultant.

I don't know if you're being intentionally obtuse because you have a problem with me (it seems you often chime in on nearly all my posts to disagree with me) or you are actually this oblivious, but if you can't see how a kid THIS age (not your age) taking a picture of himself with 4000+ dollars on his lap might open the door for some people to question where that money came from, I don't know what can be done for you.

As I stated already, he could have that money for 100 different perfectly good reasons, but there are also a few pretty questionable ones that come to mind as well. When you are an average Joe on the street, none of that matters because who gives a sh*t if a kid has money. But when you are a superstar HS football player who has many universities (and thousands of other people who take recruiting too seriously) paying attention to what you are doing it probably isn't the best idea to "open the door" to speculation.

Oh, and if you disagree that it "opened the door" what do think this entire thread (and the linked article) is about if it isn't about that door being opened? Honestly, I think you've just got an issue with me for some reason because your posts aren't making a lot of sense, and if that's the case why not just come out with it instead of disagreeing with absolutely everything I ever post?

I haven't noticed myself replying more to you than anyone else - I don't really comment much anymore, so I assure you it's not personal. If I reply to "everything you write", it must be because I find most of what you write stupid. So I guess in that way, it has something to do with you, but it's not targeted.

I do apologize. However, I was thinking more along the lines of him not truly realizing what he was doing. I've always gotten the sense that you do realize what you are doing. Besides, you're a ghost. I've learned not to invoke the name of a ghost until they present themselves, because it is only polite.

Since I'm not the age of the subject of the OP I won't get into a flame war with someone over the internet but I will say this and leave it at that: It's people like you that make this site worse IMHE. I don't think I have ever read a post of yours (at least not very often) where you provided any actual content, rather you just jump in threads with negative comments about what someone else has written. It's because of posters that use that MO that others, who probably have very insightful content to add, won't post for fear of obnoxious retorts from people for no other reason than they disagree with the post.

Now I have no problem with someone disagreeing with me or anyone else, but there is a degree of tact that most normal people use when engaging in civil debate, something I have not witnessed in any post I have ever read of yours. Anyway, I'll leave it at that as I don't want to be an ass. And thanks for calling me (or what I write) stupid too, that was much appreciated and brought me right back to elementary school (the last time i was called "stupid").

WTF does that even mean?!? What is "real" out there? And , no, I did not heard ya - you communicated non-verbally, you idiot. Put that money away and march yourself right up to your room. You're grounded!

It's immature of him to post this, but I'd say that's about as far as this goes. His face doesn't even appear in this photo. A kid immature enough to brag about a few thousand dollars is probably immature enough to fabricate it too.

You're suggesting the most likely explanation is that a school bribed him? That Occam's Razor suggests the most likely explanation of a kid possessing money is that he's been bribed? Are you truly fucking serious? You're either disingenuous, unclear in what you mean, or ignorant of what "Occam's Razor" is.

This thread, and the comments there-in is a perfect proof of your own "Don't follow recruits" policy. Because it makes people say and do dumb shit.

...is that "he fabricated this picture" is a really, really unlikely interpretation of this situation. What, he took a picture of someone ELSE's lap and stack of thousands of dollars? He found something on Google Image and assumed no one would notice?

He's a high school kid. He likely has a part-time job and no expenses, so he decided to pull some cash out to show off to his friends. I don't think this qualifies as "fabrication," and I believe that term was the subject of BiSB's objection. He wasn't implying that a bribe was the simplest explanation.

But I think the reaction (at least for me) is one part "that's pretty shady" and three parts "holy terrible judgment, kid."

Besides, you keep calling this a "bribe," implying some sort of criminal activity. A better phrasing of the nefarious interpretation would probably be a "gift'; something that would seem completely okay and innocent in most circumstances, like an employer or family friend or whomever hooking this kid up with some spending money, that becomes a problem only because he's really good at running and jumping and catching.

For me this is all about the terrible judgement part. Of course IF it came from a booster type that would be the bigger story, but that photo doesn't tell that part of the story. Obviously kids do dumb stuff, but this is pretty high up on the "not smart" meter. personally, I was relieved to not see Michigan as one of the schools listed as offering him.

Stories like this make me feel conflicted. On the one hand, it seems clear the kid has been paid. On the other hand, he's a relative nobody (localized college interest. Highly rated, yes, but he is not a Dashawn Hand or Terrelle Pryor type recruit) so it's like, the idea that soooooo many other kids could be getting better benefits, across the nation, every year, and they're alllll doing such a good job of keeping their mouths shut about it.. I just don't buy it. It's stunning how kids can be so stupid yet allegedly they're so smart and sneaky at the same time.